Nevada/Hawaii Game Today

[wildcatter]

Don't know if anyone saw the highlights - but a ridiculous ending. I believe most of these facts are correct (but correct me if I'm wrong!):

Nevada up 69-68 with about 10 seconds left, ball is in Hawaii's front court, Hawaii possession. Hawaii player (H1) is on the baseline, gets the ball, Nevada player (N1) grabs a hold of his jersey and is tugging, H1 turns around, putting up a shot with N2 still grabbing him, TWEET, shoots, scores, official on baseline signals foul on N1, basket good!

Nevada coach goes beserk, officials get back together, confer for 3-5 mins, and decide to take the points off the board, and put the foul on the floor.

For those that saw the game, did it look to you like Hawaii got the shaft? Would you have called an intentional on N1 for not making a play on the ball?

Looked like the worst of all worlds for the refs - if no other ref called a foul on the floor, and no one called the initital tugging, how can you turn around and put the foul on the floor? And how can you not call it an intentional? And overrule the baseline ref who had the play 3 feet in front of him?

[Adam]

Here we go.

[azbigdawg]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Here we go.

Be gentle...... I saw the replay, and was wondering myself.....

[Nevadaref]

{Fanboy mode ON} YEAH BABY!!!!!!!! Nevada WINS!!! {Fanboy mode Off}

I was officiating #2 vs #3 in the league and then playing in a poker tournament, (Knocked out in 7th with A,10 vs. K,K after the flop came A,8,3 and I moved all-in. He called and turned a K, PLUS RIVERED another K for quads!) so I missed the game, but I taped it. I am going to watch it right now. I'll post my thoughts later and anyone who wishes for a slow-mo frame-by-frame breakdown, I'll be happy to give it.

BTW Nevada won the first meeting @ Hawaii 68-66 in OT.
The officials for the 2nd game @Nevada were: Bill Gracey, Brian Sorenson, Kelly Self

Here is the ESPN article on the game:

RENO, Nev. -- Marcelus Kemp knows how close Nevada (No. 13 ESPN/USA Today; No. 15 AP) came to being upset by Hawaii in a wild finish in the final seconds Saturday night.

"It feels like we dodged a bullet," said Kemp, who scored the Wolf Pack's first 14 points of the second half and finished with 23 in the 69-68 victory.

Nick Fazekas added 21 points and 10 rebounds for Nevada (21-2, 9-1 Western Athletic Conference), which has won 14 of its last 15 games and now is 57-6 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season.

Hawaii appeared to have gone ahead 70-69 on Ahmet Gueye's desperation basket from 10 feet with 5.8 seconds left and Gueye headed for the free throw line after being fouled by Fazekas.

But after about a five-minute review of the videotape, the officials determined Fazekas fouled Gueye before he released the ball while falling down.

On the inbounds play, Matt Gibson's 3-point attempt was partially blocked by Denis Ikovlev. Gueye grabbed the ball and missed off the backboard before Hawaii's P.J. Owsley put it back in but another review of the tape showed it was after the buzzer.

"That was a great finish and one of the wackier ones, I guess," Nevada coach Mark Fox said. "We dodged a bullet, like the kids said."

The Wolf Pack made 20-of-21 free throws on the game and have missed only one of their last 40 from the line. Fazekas made all nine of his free-throw attempts for the three-time defending champions of the WAC.

"That's how you win games," Fazekas said. "You have to be able to shoot well from the free-throw line. ... They had their chance to beat us but we got them in the end."

Gueye made 10-of-15 shots for 21 points and 10 rebounds for Hawaii (13-10, 4-6 WAC), which had won three in a row. Matt Lojeski added 12 points, Gibson 11 and Owsley 10 for the Rainbow Warriors.

Hawaii coach Riley Wallace, who is retiring at the end of the season after 20 years as coach, saw his career record fall to 0-10 at Nevada.

"They have great players. They have a great record and they've dominated the league for the last three years," Wallace said.

Leading 67-66, Nevada point guard Ramon Sessions made a pair of free throws for a 69-66 lead with 1:13 left. But Gueye scored in the lane to cut it to 69-68 with 49 seconds remaining before Lojeski stole Kyle Shiloh's pass to give Hawaii the ball with 32 seconds left and set up the dramatic finish.

Gueye took a pass on the edge of the lane and, as he was falling down, tossed the ball high in the air before it came down through the net. When the referees signaled basket, Fox ripped his jacket off and went face to face with official Bill Gracey, who then reviewed the tape and reversed the call.

"One official counted the basket but he didn't confer with the other two officials," said Steve Macy, the WAC's assistant commissioner who was at the game.

"The other two said the basket did not count so they waved off the shot. It was a judgment call and they wanted to get it right," he said.

Fox said the officials deserved credit for reviewing the play.

"As much grief as they take, it takes courage to do it right," Fox said, adding that he wasn't very pleased with the play of his team.

"We did make foul shots. That's about the only thing we did that was something positive," Fox said. "Give Hawaii credit. They outplayed us in many ways, but we did shoot free throws very well."

Kemp opened the second half with consecutive 3-pointers to start his personal 14-point run, capped by another 3-point goal to put Nevada ahead 54-45 at 13:40.

Lojeski and Gibson made back-to-back threes and Gueye hit from 17 feet to cut it to 56-55 at 10:07. The Warriors tied it 59-59 when Gibson scored in the lane off a pass from Bobby Nash with 7:39 left.

Fazekas made a pair of free throws and Kemp turned a steal into a dunk to put Nevada up 63-59 at 5:46. But Lojeski scored inside and Nash hit a 3-pointer to cut it to 65-64 at 2:24.

Sessions scored inside for a 67-64 lead at 2:01, then after Owsley's 15-footer, made two free throws to make it 69-66 at 1:13.

Nevada went on a 9-0 run midway through the first half for a 25-15 lead when Ikovlev blocked Dominic Waters' shot in the lane, went the length of the floor for a dunk, was fouled and made the free throw.

Hawaii answered with a 16-6 run, including 3-point goals by Nash and Gibson, and Owsley's jumper to tie it 31-31 4:50 before the half. But Kemp followed with a 3-pointer, Fazekas made four free throws and Sessions two for a 40-33 lead at the break.

Before the game, Nevada President Milt Glick and athletic director Cary Groth presented a rocking chair to Wallace.

[BoomerSooner]

I actually watched the game live on the duece out here in OK (I was flipping between the end of that and the Kansas-Texas A&M game, which was a great game). Anyway, with only about 8-9 seconds left and Hawaii down 1, the ball came to a Hawaii player in the low post, and the Nevada player having a foul to give stared pulling jersey, swinging at arms, anything he could do to get a call. To start it looked like every bit of an intentionaly foul to me. The Nevada player actually pulled him down by his jersey. Nonetheless, L was straitlined and didn't see the initial grab of the jersey, so he didn't call anything until the Hawaii player had grabbed the ball and threw it toward the basket in desperation (most likely knowing that he had to be in the act of shooting to be awarded FT's, he was just trying to make it look like an attempt). The ball eventually ended up going in and because he missed the initial grab and pull of the jersey, he counted the basket.

This is where Nevada's coach rips off his jacket, goes toe to toe with the calling official who is now at the table to report the foul. IMO, he did everything he could to earn a T, regardless of whether or not the call was right or wrong. I obviously don't know what all was said, but the non-verbal aspect of the situation was enough for me to come to that conclusion.

Eventally the calling official decides to get together with his crew and sort this out. As they discuss, the ESPN2 analyst catches on the replay that C had actually raised his fist to signal a foul on the intial jersey grab and pull. They even made a comment to the effect of - now the officials have to decide who called the foul first and whether it was on the shot. IMO, a rare example of good analyst analysis with regard to the officials. Following the discussion, they go with the C's early foul call as a common foul, no bonus, no FT's, Hawaii ball out on the side. The ensuing inbound resulted in a blocked 3Pt try, a Hawaii recovery, another shot from the elbow, and a final rebound as the light lit on the backboard and a lay-in a second too late.

IMO, the situation should have come down to an Intentional Foul on Nevada and a T on Nevada's coach for the tirade. I do think they got it right that the foul happend well before the Hawaii player was in the act, so no basket no FT's was the right call there. I think the biggest mistake that was made was that C didn't close down on the foul as soon as he made it. I know there are some that don't ever close down on foul, but given the grab and pull aspect of the foul, I'd have been in there ASAP had I been in C's position out of an expectation of some extra activity. This might have at least drawn some initial discussion between C and L before a basket was actually awarded. Ultimately, now that I give it further consideration, I think the biggest mistake was a lack of communication, but the C could have fostered some discussion by getting in there immediately. (Side-note: I realize that this may sound overly critical of the officials, but I make the communication comment with the realization that this is something that requires a ton of work for me in my officiating career and from other guys I've talked to, it is a point of emphasis for them in their games as well. It's probably one of the toughest aspects for me.)

I think the whole situation comes out looking ugly because of the initial confusion and the tirade by the Nevada coach, but this was a situation that I think was handled well with the exception of my judgement on IF's and T's being a little different. But heck maybe that's why I'm not a D1 official.

[BoomerSooner]

Sorry to go on and on and then post again. But I did question the use of the video monitor in this situation. Being to lazy to pull up the NCAA manual (should just make it a favorite), I didn't think this was a situation that was allowed by rule to be reviewed by monitor. I know fouls can be reviewed with regard to the time on the clock when the foul occurred, or which player was guilty of the foul, or who should be on the line if there is uncertainty. My understanding was, however, that a judgement call could not be reviewed. I thought it could only be a case of trying to find definite information. I'm sure I'll be educated by somebody, but this just concerned my as I was watching it live.

[Nevadaref]

Ok, I've watched the tape. The foul by Fazekas is well before the act of shooting and Hawaii was not in the bonus. However, the foul should have been an intentional personal foul. I believe that the Lead could not see the jersey being held from behind due to where he was standing. The C had the first whistle on the play and that was understandably late, due to the play being out of his primary. By the time the Lead put a whistle on the play, the T had also done so.
Gracey was the Lead and he counted the basket on the play. It was after much discussion and tantrum throwing that the officials changed the call. On the tape, they never go to the monitor for this. They merely meet and talk.
That doesn't mean that the monitor was not used. I just can't see it being used on the ESPN telecast due to the camera being on the benches and the coaches. The TV broadcaster also says the he is surprised that the officials aren't going to the monitor. Personally, I don't believe that they can. It was a judgment call.

What a wild ending and a tough loss for Hawaii.